The Girl No One Cared About
by Emerald Alchemist
Summary: It's little Anna's birthday, but does anyone remember? Yoh and Anna of course...Please read and review. One Shot.


The small girl wriggled herself free from underneath the thin blankets and slid her pale yukata over her shivering shoulders. The training hall was freezing, despite all the girls...how they expected a single, tiny fire to keep a thousand people warm was beyond her, but she didn't care. Today was her fifth birthday, and she wanted to let the world know. Just like any other five year old, the term birthday meant 'power to rule over everyone else for a day', and she wasn't going to let that opportunity pass her up. As she opened the door, she frowned in disappointment when she noticed no presents outside her door.

"Maybe they just forgot..." she told herself.

The wood floor was icy on her bare feet as she ran down the long corridor on her way to breakfast. Her excitement made her forget to watch where she was going, and she ran into one of her superiors.

"S-sorry," The little girl mumbled. She looked up to see the older girl staring sharply at her, her arms folded across her developed chest. She was about fourteen or so, very pretty, and had long, ebony hair that fell in curls around her pallid cheeks. She was clearly angry.

"Just what do you think you were doing?" asked the older girl. The little girl gave no response. The older girl stared at the child. "What's your name?" Once again, no answer. "If you don't give me a name this instant, I'll-"

"It's Anna," answered the little girl. "My name is Anna Kyoyama." The older girl smiled.

"See? That wasn't so hard, was it?" she asked. "So why were you in such a hurry that you couldn't take the time to realize what you were doing?"

"Today's my birthday..." answered little Anna. She kept her gaze to the floor.

"Your birthday?" the older girl repeated. An impish grin slipped across the older girl's painted lips as she grabbed Anna by her golden hair. The small girl let out a small yelp, but didn't scream.

"Well, you listen here," she said, holding onto her hair tightly. "I could care less if the sky is falling, you don't bump into your elders so carelessly like that. You're not important, your birthday doesn't matter to anyone here, do you understand me?"

Anna gave no response. She kept her fists clenched, her fingernails digging into her palm. The girl shook her harder.

"Understand?" she shouted. Still, no response. The older girl threw Anna down, obviously annoyed with the younger girl.

"Maybe she's stupid or something," said one of the other older girls.

"Yeah, let's go, Suki, she's not worth our time," said another.

"You guys are probably right," said Suki as she began to walk away. "That'll teach her not to mess with the older girls anymore!"

Anna quickly stood to her feet and brushed herself off, trying hard to fight back the tears burning behind her eyes. She smoothed her hair to her head, making sure it was still attached.

"Birthdays are supposed to be special..." she thought. "But I guess mine isn't..." She went to the corner and plopped down, her shoulders drooping. She wanted to cry...she wanted to scream...she wanted to be anywhere other than where she was...

"Hey, are you all right?"

A gentle hand laid itself on her shoulder. Anna turned around to see a boy about her age. He had dark chestnut hair, and liquid brown eyes you could get lost in. His smile was genuine and caring.

"I'm fine," she sniffed, wiping the traces of tears from her eyes. The boy stared kindly at her, though confused.

"You don't look fine..." he said, worried. He sat himself beside her. "Please tell me what's wrong." Anna was quiet. She gave him no response. He smiled and laced his fingers through hers, squeezing her small hand gently.

"By the way, I'm Yoh...I'm your friend now," he whispered. "Please tell me what's wrong...I could help you."

Anna's amber eyes grew wide. Friend...that wasn't a term she'd heard before. Of course she knew what a friend was, but she hadn't really known anyone one would consider a friend.

"Today's my birthday..." Anna answered. She was choking on her words. "But no one seems to remember...no one cares..."

"That's not true!" said Yoh. "How could someone not remember the birthday of such a cute little girl?" he smiled. She tried to hide her faint blush from him. "What's your name?"

"Anna. Anna Kyoyama."

"Happy birthday, Anna!"

"Yoh!"

"Oh, that's Grandma Kino," he said, getting to his feet. "Coming!" he yelled back. He took one last glimpse at the blonde girl. "Remember, we're friends now!" Before she had a chance to reply...he ran off.

She didn't know who the boy was or why he cared so much...but it was nice knowing she had a friend...


End file.
